By Wilson                                               H.B. No. 59
       74R1864 SMH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to required multicultural course credit at certain public
    1-3  institutions of higher education.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 51.308 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 51.308.  MULTICULTURAL COURSES.  (a)  A general academic
    1-8  teaching institution may not grant a baccalaureate degree to a
    1-9  student unless the student has received credit for not less than
   1-10  three semester hours, or the equivalent, in multicultural courses
   1-11  at the institution or, if allowed by the governing board of the
   1-12  institution, at another accredited institution of higher education.
   1-13        (b)  The governing board of a general academic teaching
   1-14  institution may adopt rules to grant credit for multicultural
   1-15  courses toward other degree requirements at the institution.
   1-16        (c)  In this section:
   1-17              (1)  "General academic teaching institution" has the
   1-18  meaning assigned by Section 61.003.
   1-19              (2)  "Multicultural course" means a course that focuses
   1-20  either on two or more cultures or on a specific culture within
   1-21  United States society.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  Section 51.308, Education Code, as added by this
   1-23  Act, applies only to a student who initially enrolls at a general
   1-24  academic teaching  institution for the 1995-1996 academic year or
    2-1  thereafter.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-7  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-8  passage, and it is so enacted.